SDI DMs and up must demonstrate skills while neutrally buoyant

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VikingDives

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I just finished the 2021 Members Update and beginning Jan 1 2022, SDI will require all professional candidates from DM and up to "demonstrate all skills from the Open Water Scuba Diver course while neutrally buoyant."

That's a step in the right direction.
 
yes. it's about time. As an SDI Course Director, i've been pushing this for a long time and teaching it even longer. The very first thing i do with students in the pool (right after breathing!) is neutral buoyancy. Everything then flows from that.
 
The funny thing is teaching neutrally buoyant is better for everyone. There's an obvious advantage for the students, but it's actually easier for the instructor too.

Courses start off in the pool a little slower, but once the students start to feel comfortable, it's actually faster. Not to mention how much more relaxing it is with students in open water who aren't dropping like rocks or ascending like Polaris missiles.

I hope some of the newly minted instructors will take those skills on to their students...
 
I just finished the 2021 Members Update and beginning Jan 1 2022, SDI will require all professional candidates from DM and up to "demonstrate all skills from the Open Water Scuba Diver course while neutrally buoyant."

That's a step in the right direction.

Amazing. My daughter had to demonstrate that on day 2 of her Rec 1 class.
 
I don't understand this. Are they saying, going forward, all DM and pro candidates must remain neutrally buoyant while teaching/assisting with an OW course, or are they saying they only need to demonstrate it once to get the pro certification?
 
I don't understand this. Are they saying, going forward, all DM and pro candidates must remain neutrally buoyant while teaching/assisting with an OW course, or are they saying they only need to demonstrate it once to get the pro certification?

They are saying that they have to demonstrate it during DM or instructor training.

There's no requirement that they do it during OW, but, the new standard for Advanced Buoyancy Control requires that the student perform all the skills from OW while neutrally buoyant. I expect neutral instruction to become the rule, rather than the exception, in SDI over the next few years.

There's a lot of SDI instructors who already teach OW this way already, hopefully the requirement will move some of the dinosaurs in the right direction. Additionally, instructors tend to teach the way they were taught to teach so I'm guessing this will help in the long run.
 
Hallelujah!

I hope that eventually SDI requires OW students to perform skills neutrally buoyant (and trimmed) in order to be certified.
 
Hallelujah!

I hope that eventually SDI requires OW students to perform skills neutrally buoyant (and trimmed) in order to be certified.
I wish they'd have added trimmed to the update...
 
I wish they'd have added trimmed to the update...
It will be a long time before we stop seeing Buddha hovers
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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